We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christopher Corridore a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Christopher, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

I’m much happier as a business owner than I ever was as a full-time employee. Especially at a time when job security doesn’t seem to exist anymore. I think for me the sense of control that comes with entrepreneurship is the reason that is.

I’m still early on my entrepreneurial journey. I remember over the summer feeling really burnt out of all the ups and downs, not making money, and watching my credit card limits being reached. From a strictly financial standpoint, I wrestled with the whole “should I or shouldn’t I just go get a job’ thoughts many times. I felt really stuck and conflicted.

I spoke with my business coach and he reminded me that this isn’t for everyone and if I wanted to get a job, he would help me do it. He continued to remind me that the process for finding clients was the same as as finding a job. “What are you going to submit a resumés?” he asked. No you’re gooing to go talk to as many people as you can.

It was a great reminder that I can help more people and be more valuable with my specific skillset, which is branding, than I could in a job that would need me to be a swiss army knife.

It was enough to get me back on track.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Like a lot of other creative professionals, my love for art and making things started when I was very young. When I got to high school, I did my first graphic design internship and quickly fell in love with the craft. Learning about typography, layout, and all the tools was new, exciting, and something I could really sink my teeth into.

I had always worked on small teams which allowed me to learn how to do a lot of different things within design, but branding is hands down my favorite thing to do. I always said I’d be happy if I could create logos all day.

Then I started to learn about brand strategy and how to make strategic design changes. It was a game changer for the work I was producing and I started to feel like I could add real value to a business and not just be a pixel pusher.
Now in my business, I’m combining those two elements and specializing in solving one main problem. Fixing the broken relationship between businesses and their brands. There are so many talented, brilliant, hard-working and good-willed entrepreneurs out there who have awesome businesses but don’t know how to effectively bring their vision to life through their brand. Or they’re growing and hit a point where the brand needs a professional upgrade. That’s where I come in.

I believe branding is the most human thing we can do in business because our brands really aren’t about us. For me, its is about being daring enough to say “I’m here for you. I made this thing or I solve this problem because I saw you needed it.” It’s about building relationships, standing for something, and creating value.

Freelancers can be hit or miss and you likely get what you pay for. Full-service agencies are expensive because they rely on billable hours and have a lot of overhead. I’m creating something in between. I like to say I’m the Chipotle of brand agencies. Focused menu, quality ingredients, and a streamlined process. As Ron Swanson said, “Never half-ass two things, whole-ass one thing.” I like to think of it more like a branding factory than an agency. When the process is streamlined and repeatable I’m not worried about recreating the wheel every project which means the creative work can get the lion’s share of my focus. I want my clients to feel that and know they’re going to get the best experience.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

A few years into my career I got laid off. I took it really hard. My wife got laid off 2 weeks after I did and we were months away from having our first baby. It was a really tough time, but together we decided I was going to freelance so I could be home with my daughter, work on my terms, and learn as much as I could. Luckily, my wife got hired back within her company and I got to spend a lot of time with my baby daughter which was priceless.

Then, a few years later my wife got laid off again, 8 months into pregnancy with our second daughter. Shortly after that Covid hit and wiped out my freelance work completely. Slowly, but surely, work started to come in again and my wife got another job. Her first day was the same day that our insurance ran out from her severance package. You can’t make this stuff up!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One lesson that I had to unlearn is no one really cares what you do – they care about where you can take them. And learning how to communicate makes such a huge difference when you’re marketing your business or product. And I see it all the time on different websites and people’s LinkedIn headers. Make everything about the people you serve. The more specific you are the less friction there is to starting conversations with the people who need you most.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.corridorecreative.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriscorridore/